Reborn in Flames
by whythosir
Summary: The year is 1978. The First Wizarding War is underway. Chaos is afoot and mistakes are punishable by death. Will Hermione Granger survive long enough to see a happy ending? Or will she die like the rest of them. After all, terrible things happen to wizards who meddle with time.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Hermione was floating in a sea of fire. Her bones had become splinters of glass, digging their way through every fibre of her being as her blood boiled and her veins turned to dust. /p

"It's a fake!" She spat, tears in her eyes. Bellatrix laughed. Hermione could feel the sound reverberating in her soul. Bellatrix's eyes were wild. She was unhinged. Rabid.

"You lie!" She screamed, pointing her wand at her again. "Crucio!"

Hermione was screaming. Or at least she thought she was screaming. She assumed she was screaming. She couldn't be sure. "How did you get into my vault?" Bellatrix was pacing over her. "How did you get into my vault!"

"We didn't, I swear." Her voice was barely a whisper. This did not appease the Witch. Bellatrix threw herself on top of Hermione, pinning the younger girl roughly to the ground. She dug her wand into her arm.

"Tell me!" She screamed again, peppering Hermione's face with her spit. Hermione only cried.

Mudblood. Hermione screamed again and Bellatrix marked her arm. She could feel the woman's anger with every movement, like venom seeping through her. Hermione's eyes flickered. She was floating again, only this time she couldn't feel anything. A darkness was forming in the corners of her eyes. An all encompassing blackness. Hermione embraced it.

"Dumbledore! We need Dumbledore!"

Hermione groaned. There were people moving all around her. Hands grabbing her arms and legs, shifting her weight. "Gentle now." A woman said, and Hermione felt her body being lowered onto something soft.

"Harry?" She whispered, pleading with her eyes to focus. She could hear their voices, though she couldn't see who spoke.

"How the hell did she in here?"

"-the most heavily guarded safehouse we have?

"What if she's a spy?"

"Death eater!"

"But how did she find us?"

"Look at her!" The first woman's voice was sharp. "Spy or not. Death Eater or not, she's going to die if someone doesn't help her! Let's get her stable enough to speak, and then maybe we can get some answers."

"Ron?" The room went silent. A hand was pushing her hair from her face.

"Shhh," it was the same woman who spoke again. "You're alright, don't try to talk." Hermione struggled to move but her limbs refused to felt heavy, weighted. A face was sliding in and out of focus in front of her. A face with long, flaming red hair.

"Ginny?" Hermione whispered, "Oh, thank God." She was whimpering. "I'm safe." Her vision was spiralling out of control.

"Shhhh." The woman said again. And the darkness overcame her once more.

Hermione sat up abruptly, warily taking in her surroundings. She was sitting in a bed, a warm and homemade looking quilt covering her lower half. The room she was in was small, but comfortable. Fading wallpaper decorated the walls and the hardwood floors looked used and worn. She didn't recognize it.

The door opened and a woman entered. Her bright orange hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail. They looked to be about the same age.

"Oh!" The woman gasped, freezing in the now open doorframe. "I hadn't expected you to be awake just yet. That potion wore off faster than I'd hoped."

Hermione pulled her knees to her chest protectively, her hands searching under the covers for her wand. It was nowhere to be found. She tried to ignore the pain that radiated from every muscle in her body.

"I'm not going to hurt you." The woman said softly, "What's your name?"

Hermione's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Had she been rescued by the Order? Why didn't she know this person in front of her? The woman took a step towards her, causing Hermione to shrink back against the wall beside the bed.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the woman repeated, raising her hands in surrender. "Can you tell me how you got here?" Hermione shook her head.

"Lily?" A black haired man came from behind the woman, through the door, his voice stopping short when he spotted Hermione. "I see she's awake," he said. Hermione's eyes widened. Her heart was pounding in her throat.

"Am I dead?" She whispered. Both of the figures before her fell silent. The woman, Lily, moved another step closer.

"I can assure you, you aren't dead." She gave Hermione a soft smile. Green eyes radiating kindness. Hermione raised her hand to point at the man behind Lily. She was shaking.

"But it's you." She said flatly. The man's mouth opened slightly before closing again. As if he had been about to say something but had suddenly though the better of it. He frowned at her.

"If you're here, I must be dead." She pulled her hair in frustration. "This doesn't make any sense!" The man looked at her, confusion apparent on his face. His fingers twitched for the wand in his pocket

You're dead." Hermione said, her brown eyes staring into his grey ones.

"I watched you die, Sirius Black."

 **Authors Note:** Thanks for reading! I plan to have a chapter uploaded on a biweekly basis at minimum. I hope you enjoyed the Prologue. Please review!


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"What the fuck did she mean, I'm dead?" Sirius was practically wearing a groove in the floor as he paced back and forth around the room. "Seriously- what the fu-"

"Sirius!" Lily interrupted hastily, "I think we get the idea." Sirius sighed, walking over to the large wooden table where his comrades sat and throwing himself down dramatically into the chair beside the red-headed girl.

"This just doesn't make any sense." James Potter was shaking his head. "Did you get anything else out of her?"

Sirius shook his head. "She clamped up pretty tight after that." He looked pointedly at James, "and it wasn't as though we could torture it out of her."

Lily raised a delicate eyebrow.

"Of course you couldn't." Albus Dumbledore voice's was soft and quiet. It was apparent to everyone in the room that he was deep in thought. "I do not believe the girl is a threat."

"Well, obviously." James said, "not unless she carved 'mudblood' into her own arm to fool us."

"And she doesn't have the Dark Mark." Lily added, placing her hand on her husbands.

"Doesn't mean she's not a spy!" Sirius insisted, leaning back in his chair.

"I do not mean to suggest we should trust her immediately, Mr. Black." Dumbledore peered at Sirius over the top of his glasses. "I merely do not believe she is a danger to us." His blue eyes were solemn. Sirius swallowed.

"Someone needs to talk to her." Lily said, "properly. We need to find out what happened to her."

"You're not going in there without me." James implored, eyeing his wife. Lily felt her cheeks grow warm, despite herself.

"I can handle myself James." She muttered.

"Nobody is doubting your abilities, Lil." Sirius grinned at her, "But you're definitely not going in there without _me._ "

James rolled his eyes. "I suppose you'd like us to keep this to ourselves?" He queried, regarding the older wizard with care. James might be reckless, but he wasn't stupid.

"I think that would be wise." Dumbledore agreed, "at least for the time being."

To this the room could agree. Knowledge was power, and these days you couldn't trust anybody with either.

It was dark. Hermione sat on the bed, facing the door. The quilt was wrapped around her shoulders like a heavy cloak. Her hair resembled a birds nest. While her skin had been cleared on the blood and dirt that had coated her when she arrived, apparently her hair had yet to be tackled. She didn't blame them. She could barely tackle it herself.

Hermione's thoughts were flying. The black haired man that had entered earlier. Sirius Black, obviously alive and about 20 years younger than he had been when Hermione had witnessed him fall through the veil in the Department of Mysteries.

Her mind was a whirring machine, and her gears were turning so rapidly she was semi-surprised she was still functional.

Sirius Black was alive. Lily Potter was _alive._ She had heard someone call for Dumbledore. _Albus Dumbledore was alive._ She shook her head, as if the motion would aid her in clearing her mind.

A knock on the door startled her. She jumped, becoming tangled in her quilt as the door opened. Lily stared in at her with big, sad eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." Hermione stared. "Do you mind if I come in?" Lily didn't wait for an answer. She entered the room, closing the door behind her and conjuring herself a chair. She took a seat by the exit.

"I'm Lily." She said, smiling. Hermione nodded. "Do you know me?"

"No." Hermione's voice was rough and cracked. She looked away suddenly. This was Harry's _Mother_! Harry's _dead_ Mother! Bellatrix was must have driven her insane. Older and more experienced Witches had been broken with less. It was the only reasonable explanation.

Lily was saying something but Hermione hadn't been listening. "What's the date?" She asked suddenly. Lily's eyes widened slightly. The question had taken her by surprise.

"August 16th."

"What year?" Hermione asked, looking down at her arm. She ran a finger gingerly over the bandages.

Lily watched the new witch with a renewed sense of curiosity. Who was this girl? What exactly had happened to her? That mark on her arm. Lily couldn't even imagine.

"Well, 1979 of course."

Hermione's head snapped up. "What did you say?"

"1979..." Lily repeated, "Look, can you at least tell me your name?"

This couldn't be happening! Hermione's thoughts travelled back to earlier in the evening. Harry, Ron and her had been captured by Snatchers in The Forest of Dean. They had been delivered into the "open arms" of Malfoy Manor. Bellatrix had grown enraged at the discovery of the Gryffindor sword. Hermione had been tortured.

She looked up at the fiery woman before her.

This was Harry's mom. Lily was alive. Sirius Black was alive. _She was 18 years in the past._

"I'm Hermione Granger." She said, standing up and extending her uninjured hand. "Pleasure."

 **A/N:**

 **Thank you all** ** _SO_** **much for the lovely reviews, follows and favourites. I was super happy that my prologue was so well received. This chapter is SHORT and I am** ** _SORRY._** **I promise the other chapters will be longer. I just really enjoyed where I had ended this chapter and it didn't feel right to add on more. Please read & review! **


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